AN HOUR WITH BSH’S ASIA PACIFIC PRESIDENT

In mid-March, we were pleased to spend an hour with Singapore-based Marc Hantscher (above), Asia Pacific President of BSH Home Appliances, and local BSH MD, Darryl Robinson.

Over from BSH’s Asia Pacific headquarters for the launch of NEFF, the Asia Pacific boss started by sharing some insights around BSH’s third brand.

Marc Hantscher: “I am very excited to have NEFF in the New Zealand market because the brand fits the market very well. It fits between our two other brands, with Bosch serving every New Zealand household and Gaggenau appealing to the discerning consumer who wants something special.

“NEFF targets home chefs and people who love cooking,” he continues. “New Zealand has moved on from bangers & mash into an exciting new food culture and NEFF in our view is the brand for food lovers, people who celebrate food.”

Likening Bosch, NEFF and Gaggenau to Audi, Porsche and Bentley respectively, although the three BSH brands are from a single portfolio, Marc Hantscher explains each has its own design team and its own factories in Germany, just as it has its own place in the market.

We talk also about a certain consolidation that’s been ongoing in the appliance industry, with Haier buying GE’s appliances division, Whirlpool buying Indesit, Midea buying the appliances division of Toshiba for example.

Consolidation has in fact been in train for more than a decade. Take BSH: now with three brands under the same Kiwi umbrella, both NEFF and Gaggenau had until the early 2000s been distributed here by other operations.

For his part, Marc Hantscher isn’t going on the record about the success or otherwise to date of some of the more recent global-scale acquisitions.

According to him, BSH mainly relies on growth through organic means: “We are focusing on our brand portfolio and our innovation set to drive more sales – we are the fastest growing group in the industry over the last two years, after all!”